I've been attempting to teach Smokey the name of different objects for the last two? maybe three weeks now. We are starting with phone and shoe. I put both in front of him and say 'phone' and he's supposed to paw it. Then I say 'shoe' and he's supposed to paw that. He gets it...But if I switch places of the two (put one on the left when it was on the right; and the other on the right when it was on the left) he doesn't get it. I think he's looks for a pattern. If I touch the object, and say 'phone' he'll copy. But I don't think understands the concept.

I'd simply put Smokey on the other side of the objects after he gets them picked properly from one side.... without moving or touching them...hence what was on the left will now be on the right once you reposition him.

Perhaps "phone" and "shoe" are becoming left and right to him....

Maybe just using one object rather than two in the beginning will cement that the phone is the phone....

I did something similar with a ball and a rubber squeaky toy...which the dog already knew the words for...perked up whenever I would say.."wanna play ball"...or "wanna play pig"..pig was a rubber squeaky toy. Put both out in the living room 10 feet from each other and said " get the ball" she figured it out...."get the pig" she'd go get the pig. However, when I said "get the pig" at first...she'd try and retrieve me...a bit of an insult from a wet behind the ears GSD but what the heck.......

Hmmmm...I'm thinking there are others in this forum that might have a wiser comment regarding the "repetition"...but I do know I practice the heck out of new "tricks" and commands....and I use a ton of repetition...as long as the practice is getting us somewhere. When I get to an impasse of sorts...I usually give my process some scrutiny and look for a new angle to train the dog.

Smokey looks like he is having fun figuring out the "game"....good job.

HOWEVER !!!!!! I will say...at 37 seconds into the video...your dog Smokey completely responds to your command of "book"..Smokey clearly says back to you " BOOK".......

When I was teaching Varik the names of a few of his toys, I just waited until he picked up one and then, with repetition, would say "Oh you want to play with your stick? That's your stick. You have your stick" (you get the idea). Later, I could say "go get your stick" and he knew it. He's very quick to associate words. Outside he knows his ring (chuck it ring), egg (Jolly Egg), ball (deflated basketball). Inside he has his bones, sticks, toy (nylabone log looking thing).

I would concentrate on one item at a time .. have him pick THAT item out of a line up so to speak. Then gradually add other items.

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